Christine's walking & birds blog

Yesterday was mild but wet, and I spent some time thinking about and regretting my moans of the previous day. After just seven weeks of a lockdown that isn't all that onerous here, I'm whinging - whereas my parents' generation had to cope with nearly six years of war.  My mum had a small son and was pregnant with her second child when her husband was called up. He was allowed to visit her for a couple of hours after the birth and held his baby daughter for the first and last time; he was sent to France and there he was killed.

My dad served in North Africa and Italy, and on demob, moved from London to Buckinghamshire. In 1950 he met Mum; they married, and I was born.

During the run-up to the EU referendum, Radio Four was interviewing people on the street. "We won two world wars," one man bragged, "so I think we can look after ourselves now!" What blatant ignorance. There was, to start with, a little matter of our allies. Secondly, no-one really wins a war when so many are left dead on both sides; and thirdly, the country didn't look after its citizens that well even when it was over - with Mum receiving a pittance as a war widow and food rationing continuing until after my birth. Fourteen years of food rationing! I can't even begin to imagine that. Mum had no-one to help her, and she worked as a cleaner to feed her family. When the war ended, I'm pretty sure she didn't feel she'd "won" anything.

Belonging to the EU was one of the best things we've had - its very existence could minimise the risk of future wars in Europe. And that stupid git Johnson is still giving more time to brexit than to facing up properly to the corona virus crisis. Have to stop now or I'll get angry all over again.


A tree pipit checks in! Probably newly arrived it was wary, and I could get only one shot.


Lots of newts were seen in moorland pools and the refreshed puddles along the hill-paths; but the rain has come too late to save the tadpoles.  Ending with the loop around the spit, we saw two wheatears near the point and were accompanied by a handful of twite which flew ahead of us along the west shore and past the harbour, where they found some weeds growing through the paving near the fish-and-chip tables.

Our walk was nearly 10 kilometres and on it, we experienced a cold north wind, sunshine, hail, and snow.